Does Torchbearer have a core mechanic that’s easily described?
Are there traditional elements such as Hit Points and Armor Class? Any other D&D based rules or mechanics?
My group is very D&D focused so I’m curious how much of a learning curve there would be.
I'm getting to this conversation a little bit late.
Torchbearer wasn't my go to game outside of the pandemic, but it is inside, and I've been running a Slack based Torchbearer game for the past couple of months.
For people not at all familiar with it or its parent games, I tend to describe Torchbearer as Fiction First Blue Box D&D. Aside from the setting and the
kinds of things you're going to be doing, there aren't really any mechanical similarities. That being said though, even though it's a hard game to maybe understand, I don't think that it's a hard game to play. You describe what you want your character to do, the GM and the people at the table have a little conversation about it, the GM tells you to roll some dice and then tells you what happens.
As other people have pointed out it manages to take a lot of otherwise hand wavey boring parts of standard fare fantasy role playing (light, encumbrance, rations) and turns them into a really interesting resource management game. Even after months of play and lots of character levels, players still sweat about having enough food and light and whether they're going to be able to even get out of the dungeon lugging all this treasure around.
Players need a combination of failure and success to overcome obstacles and grow, and the game teases you with ways to gamble away your success to accumulate the resources that you'll need later on to recover and prepare for the next round of delving.
Skills need a certain number of passed and failed tests to level up. "Checks" are a currency you earn by giving yourself penalties to rolls or otherwise tied tests against an enemy or an obstacle. When the party breaks for camp, checks are used to take actions like repairing armor or writing scrolls or removing negative conditions from party members.
To me there are two main mechanical branches of the game. There are tests, where you describe an action and your teammates describe what they're doing to help you. Then the GM tells you what stat to roll and how many additional helping dice you get. You roll that many D6s and tell the GM how many dice were successes (4 or above). Then the GM either tells you how you succeed, how you fail, or what interesting thing happens along the way.
The other main mechanical tool is a "conflict" which is a more complicated tapestry of tests meant to describe a dramatic moment. A conflict can be used to model combat, or travelling across a lake in a storm, or chasing a pickpocket down narrow city streets, or convincing the town guard that you've learned your lesson and they should really let you go home with just a warning. All of them use the same exact framework.
Each round the GM and the players each set out three face down cards that describe the actions that individuals are going to lead the group in doing. Each pair of cards is flipped, and the actions on them are checked against a Rock/Paper/Scissors/Lizard/Spock kind of matrix to see how they interact. In a fight, an Attack played against a Defend might describe a viscous swing with a battle axe that buries itself in someone else's shield. Stats are checked, help is offered, dice are rolled, and the margin of success between the two opposing rolls tells you which side either loses or gains or prevents the loss of hit points or disposition. With the town guard, those cards might describe the thief trying to persuade the watchmen they accidentally dropped a bag full of gold coins while the watchmen wrestle with their conscience and what they know is right and wrong.
As for the new edition, I'm really freaking excited. For as good as a game I think this is, there are parts that have felt unpolished to me over the years and the dribble of information we've received so far has convinced me that they've done a LOT of polishing.
I
think that maybe a Creed is going to be half of what Beliefs used to be.
For those not familiar, a character's Belief used to be a one sentence code or ethical statement that you would get one kind of experience point for following. "I believe in standing up for the little guy so I jump between the wight and the wizard." and a different kind of experience point for acting against "I run for my life out of the catacombs, the magician's screams for help echoing behind me!"
Looking at the character sheet, you no longer get a Persona for going against your Belief. I don't know if that's a typo, or a way to slow down experience gain, but I think that a Creed is going to be something LIKE a belief but that you want to be questioned and put on the spot about. "This is the moral test I want my character to be put through."
